GP Academy — Learning Time Tracking & Analytics System

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Overview

GP Academy Australia needed a learning time tracking system to monitor student engagement across their LMS and exam platforms. The goal was to accurately record time spent on learning materials, quizzes, and exams, process the data efficiently, and display summarized analytics for individual students and overall cohorts.

We built a scalable backend analytics system using Laravel Lumen, MySQL, and AWS SQS to handle reliable data collection, processing, and visualization.

The Challenge

  • ⏱️ Accurate tracking: Users may leave the LMS or exam system without logging out, leading to potential gaps in data.

  • 🔄 Cross-platform data integration: Activity signals come from multiple platforms and need to be aggregated correctly.

  • ⚡ Reliable processing: High-volume events must be queued and processed without data loss.

  • 📊 Visualization & analytics: Present per-student totals, 5-week summaries, and cohort averages in both numeric and graphical formats.

Our Solution

We developed a robust, automated backend workflow:

  1. Data Collection:

    • User activity signals (learning materials, quizzes, exam durations) are sent from LMS/exam systems to a Lumen API.

  2. Queueing & Processing:

    • Signals are pushed to AWS SQS to ensure reliable, asynchronous processing.

    • Scheduled tasks consume the queue, calculate cumulative learning times, and store results in MySQL.

  3. Analytics & Visualization:

    • Aggregated data includes per-user weekly totals, 5-week trends, and cohort averages.

    • Frontend displays numeric summaries and line charts for easy visualization.

    • Data is updated dynamically, including the current week.

  4. Reliability Features:

    • System accounts for incomplete sessions (users leaving without logout).

    • Queue-based processing prevents lost or duplicate signals, ensuring data integrity.

Technology Stack

  • Backend: Laravel Lumen

  • Database: MySQL

  • Queue & Async Processing: AWS SQS

  • Data Visualization: Line charts + numeric summaries on frontend

  • Integration: Real-time API signals from LMS and Exam systems

Outcome & Impact

  • 📈 Students and educators have real-time insights into learning engagement.

  • 🔄 Cross-platform signals are aggregated reliably with AWS SQS.

  • ⚡ Automated analytics save manual effort and ensure accurate reporting.

  • 📊 Cohort and individual visualizations support data-driven decisions to improve learning outcomes.

GP Academy now has a powerful, automated learning analytics system that tracks engagement, calculates detailed statistics, and presents clear visual summaries for both students and administrators.

What We Delivered

  • Lumen API for receiving real-time activity signals

  • AWS SQS queue for reliable, asynchronous processing

  • Cloudways MySQL for storing processed results

  • Scheduled tasks and cron jobs for aggregation

  • Frontend analytics with numeric summaries and line charts

  • Handling of incomplete sessions and reliable processing of all signals